Chapter 83.5- One Thousand Hands

Uraume, beyond a brief look out wide did nothing to change her approach ask she reached the older woman. Chiyo stepped backwards as frames fingers reached for her brain. Sharp footwork had my cousin advancing into the space that the puppeteer had just vacated, aiming to burst hr hart with the next attack. This one Chiyo slapped to the side with a forearm motion. Then her fingers twisted again and the ground beneath Uraume began to open up.

She jumped backwards, avoiding the trap, but instantly being caught by a centipede made of white clay. In a flash, Uzume was there. Her Sussano’o was gone, but she swung her gunbai, crackling with lightning release in one smooth motion, setting Uraume free. Chiyo’s fingers danced, and the puppets that Uzume had shattered to pieces began to reassemble themselves..

Both women looked around them, and then Chiyo did something I hadn’t expected. She snapped her fingers, sealing the box that contained what I suspected was a very poisoned Raikage into her scroll before shoving it straight into her bosom.. Well, that would be a nightmare to get out. Her head snapped to the side. And she looked off into the distance for a few minutes before turning back to me. There was something indecipherable in her expression, and then the Iwa girl was moving. Several birds shot from her cupped hands, flying over to us.

Uzume took the first move, cutting apart two thirds of them in clean, efficient movements, while Uraume's senbon dealt with the few remaining. While they did so, I watched the girl bring out another bird, except that this one expanded until ir was about a size where it could carry the two of them without trouble.

“Stop her” I said, and Chiyo seemed to smirk. Uzume body flickered forwards until I heard the sound of broken bone just as there was an explosion of stone from Chiyo’s position. In front of her stood a man in Monk’s robes. He looked less than human, a distinctly artificial varnish and pallor appearing in his skin. It clicked then. Human puppetry. Chiyo was using human puppetry. That was why the Iwa girl was so ardent in her defence of her. She was naught but a puppet in the end. And I was beginning to get a very bad feeling about what she was taking the Raikage for.

“Uzume?” I asked. She looked at me and shook her head. Fuck. She was tapped out as well. Uraume had already fought Sora before this, and was one handed besides. There was no chance she was going to beat Chiyo and what puppets she had under her sleeve with this.

“Prepare for my return, Shorirama Senju. I will enjoy the despair in your eyes as I pluck them from your skull. Now good riddance” She said, and the bird took off with a blast of air.